Madam, - Kevin Myers again brilliantly articulates the thoughts of many on the Holocaust and David Irving (An Irishman's Diary, February 22nd and 23rd).
The full frontal assault on our hard won right to free speech is coming not just from outside Europe but by political leaders pandering to short-term interest.
So a Danish Eurosceptic MEP attacks his Government for not entertaining the demands of Islamic ambassadors to punish a satirical magazine. An Italian minister has to resign after wearing a T-shirt with the controversial cartoons that no mainstream Irish newspaper will publish. David Irving is jailed for expressing in 1989 views which are illegal in Austria.
Our President apologises on behalf of all Irish people for the offence caused by a Danish magazine that is not even on sale in Ireland, to a gender-segregated audience in a country singled out as one of the most brutal, anti-democratic regimes in the world. Even in London the Government seeks to enact repressive legislation to hound those who express an unacceptable point of view.
One of the common threads is money - the greedy wish to take advantage of Danish misfortune in Middle East markets or to protect our own market share by telling the audience what they want to hear. Meanwhile, our leaders want to watch a 1916 military parade, beat their chests, wipe a tear from their eyes for all that has been achieved. The hypocrisy is sickening. - Yours, etc,
DESMOND WHITE, Beaufort Downs, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.
Madam, - Although I agree on the whole with Colette Brown (February ), I would like to stress how seriously Neo-Nazi tendencies are taken in both Austria and Germany.
The third Reich was defeated a mere 60 years ago. Many people who fought in the second World War are still alive. The reality of the Holocaust is still very much something with which Germans and Austrians still feel they must come to terms. So it is understandable that they are very anxious that history not repeat itself.
Furthermore, they feel that David Irving, who classes himself as a scholarly historian, increases the risk of a re-emergence of Nazism by trying to claim that the darkest chapter in German history never happened in the first place.
Their attempts to silence him may seem extreme and somewhat anti-democratic to us, but the reason, I think, is apparent to all. - Yours, etc,
JENNIFER HEGARTY-OWENS, Ansbach, Germany.